Counter-Strike 2 Gun Sticker Controversy

Overview

Counter-Strike 2 Gun Sticker Controversy, also known as CS2 Offensive Stickers Controversy, refers to the "Arms Race" update to the video game Counter-Strike 2, released in early February 2024, which allowed players to "Sticker Craft" and attach up to five stickers onto their guns. This update, and the sticker craft feature, was quickly exploited by many users who created stickers on their guns showing various slurs and lewd imagery, typically by overlapping them.

Background

On February 6th, 2024, Counter-Strike 2 received an update that brought back its game mode "Arms Race" and also allowed players to "Sticker Craft" as a customization option. In Sticker Craft users are able to use the various stickers they have collected and put up to five of them on the gun in different angles and placements. This quickly turned into some players using the stickers to create new patterns for their guns, as seen by the post on X by user @RexJMaxwell^[1] showing off a gun he collected (shown below).

Shortly after the update went live, however, some players began to use various stickers of just letters to spell out things on their guns. This led to players creating stickers on their guns that would spell out contentious phrases or words, as seen in the post on X by user @justghisky.^[2] On February 7th, 2024, this user posted a shotgun with a collection of stickers that spelled out "DICK in my ASS," which they posted as a reply to a CS2 pro gamer asking to fix an issue in the game (shown below).

Online Reactions

Over the next day, the stickers continued to increase along this path, with many guns popping up that featured various racial slurs. This was then added onto by the community creating lewd artwork, including multiple stickers being used to create phallic symbols, on different guns. For example, on February 7th, 2024, X user @GaryTCxD^[3] combined multiple of these images into one compilation image and posted it to the platform, berating players for abusing this newfound freedom (shown below).

Also on February 7th, the YouTube^[4] channel Counter Strike 2 uploaded a video featuring many custom sticker placements, receiving over 20,000 views and 800 likes in one day (seen below). YouTuber^[5] 3kliksphilip posted another example that day showing numerous questionable sticker combos, receiving over 750 likes in a similar timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References